


somewhere, a voice calls (in the depths of my heart)

by banh_bao



Category: Ace Mansion (Roleplay)
Genre: Alternate Universe – Spirited Away, F/F, Multi, i chugged an iced coffee and then sat down and wrote this in one sitting on christmas eve
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:14:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21997327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/banh_bao/pseuds/banh_bao
Summary: When she looks back at the bridge, there’s a girl staring at her with narrowed eyes. She’s short, with strawberry-blonde hair and pursed lips. Her clothes are unlike anything Tali’s ever seen. She’s certain she’s never met this girl in her life, and yet something about her is strangely familiar. She feels it like a distant memory, fuzzy around the edges and buried in the sands of time, slipping from her grasp as soon as she tries to reach it.Entranced as she is by this strange new girl, it takes Tali a moment to realize she’s speaking. “Sorry, what?”“You’re human.” It isn’t a question. (Tali’s teenage lizard brain fritzes at the sound of this girl’s voice. It’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever heard.) “Tali, you can’t be here.”Or: that one Spirited Away AU we keep talking about
Relationships: Dot/Tali, Kikyo/Haku (background)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	somewhere, a voice calls (in the depths of my heart)

The one thing, the _only thing_ , that’s running through her mind right now is _holy shit this is a bad idea._

“Guys, I’m serious! This place gives me bad vibes. It shouldn’t be this empty.” She keeps checking behind her, trying to dispel the feeling of phantom eyes upon her back. It’s quiet here– too quiet. Besides the fact that this place _literally popped out of nowhere_ , isn’t the silence a pretty obvious warning sign? Even if nobody’s here, there should at least be rats or pigeons or some of the usual scavengers.

Hue waves her off with an easy grin. “It’s probably nothing, Tali. Let’s just go in and grab some food, yeah? If there’s nobody here that’ll just make things easier! Ooh, something smells really good down there. Do you think they have beer? I hope they have beer.”

“And if we get caught, we can stab them.”

Tali rolls her eyes. _Fine._ It’s not like they’re going to listen to her if they’ve already made up their minds.

They walk down the empty street, bracketed on both sides by unoccupied booths and stalls. For a closed theme park, it sure doesn’t seem abandoned.

She glances over her shoulder again. The entrance seems impossibly distant now, the faded red plaster hidden behind the hills. Have they really been walking for that long? She can’t tell. It’s only felt like a few minutes, so how are they already so far away?

Hue’s face visibly lights up when they reach the food stall. Food of all kinds is piled on the counter; dumplings, pies, soup– oh holy shit that sure is an entire pig. He drags Blink over, followed closely by the others.

The bad feeling hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s gotten even stronger. “I don’t think we should eat that stuff. Shouldn’t we check around first? It’s weird that all this food is out but nobody’s around.”

“Maybe they’re on a lunch break? Who knows? Come on, do you _really_ care?”

There’s no way they can be this dumb. “Listen, I don’t give a shit about stealing, but the vibes around this place? Absolutely disgusting.”

“If you’re that worried, then go check the area or something.”

“Yeah, we’ll be right here eating all this good shit without you.”

She rolls her eyes and stomps away, cursing under her breath _. Fucking dumbasses._ Fine, let them get chased off by whatever pissy staff member comes back after their break. See if she cares.

Her feet carry her down an ambling side road (also empty) that opens out to a river she _swears_ hadn’t been there before. She stares across it, jaw dropping slightly at the massive bridge stretching across to the tower on the other side. It’s tall and red and she’s _never_ seen anything like this before.

She looks behind her. The street looks different from the one she just took. Belatedly, she realizes she can’t hear her friends’ raucous laughter anymore. Actually, she can’t even tell which way the entrance was anymore. The hair on the back of her neck rises.

When she looks back at the bridge, there’s a girl staring at her with narrowed eyes. She’s short, with strawberry-blonde hair and pursed lips. Her clothes are unlike anything Tali’s ever seen. She’s certain she’s never met this girl in her life, and yet something about her is strangely familiar. She feels it like a distant memory, fuzzy around the edges and buried in the sands of time, slipping from her grasp as soon as she tries to reach it.

Entranced as she is by this strange new girl, it takes Tali a moment to realize she’s speaking. “Sorry, what?”

“You’re human.” It isn’t a question. (Tali’s teenage lizard brain fritzes at the sound of this girl’s voice. It’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever heard.) “Tali, you can’t be here.”

She shakes herself back to reality. “Uh, yeah, I’m human– wait, how do you know my name? Who even are you? What’s your problem?”

(Do I know you?)

The girl takes several decisive steps forward, her form beginning to blacken at the edges. “You need to go.” She doesn’t acknowledge Tali’s words. “Find your friends and get out of here before the sun sets. This is no place for people like you.” The girl is close enough now to grab her sleeve.

(The girl’s eyes are a pale, cold gray.)

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tali pushes her away but a hot, dry wind blasts her in the face so hard that she’s forced to screw her eyes shut. When she opens them again, she’s standing back in the middle of the street. The girl and the river are nowhere to be seen. Instead, all around her are the same empty stone buildings she’d passed before, and in the distance is that strange red tower.

A warm breeze whips her hair into her eyes. She could swear she hears a voice whisper in to her ears. _Run, Tali. Get them and go before it’s too late._

The sky is a rosy orange-pink now, setting faster than she’d thought possible. Lanterns flicker to life all around and shadows rise from impossible angles. Translucent figures begin to glide down the street, all painted masks and inky darkness. Stalls once abandoned now bustle with activity, odd shapes hidden behind the hanging cloth and obscured by smoke from their kitchens.

None of them look particularly human.

Thoroughly spooked, she hurries down the street, trying to find the stall where she’d left the Vipers. _This is just way too weird!_ Alarm bells are going off in the back of her mind, a familiar dread pooling in her stomach. She breaks into a run, ducking between ghostly forms and slinking into the shadows wherever she can.

Up ahead is a familiar booth. She sees the back of a leather jacket, the shoulders of an eye-searing floral print, and breathes out a sigh of relief.

“Hey assholes, let’s–“ she barely holds back a scream.

These aren’t her friends.

Instead, a group of pigs in human clothes await her. The one in the leather jacket reaches forward, only for its snout to be slapped back by a shadowy hand reaching out of the cloud of steam. The one next to it snorts and leans in as well but is quickly struck as well. All of their snouts are covered in raised welts and bits of food.

She takes a step forward, but the pig in Eli’s clothes swings around and bellows at her. She stumbles back, shaking her head. _What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck **what** **the FUCK** –_

The shadowy hand beckons to her and that’s the final straw. She bolts away as fast as she can, calling out to the others. “Blink! Hue! Note! Where are you guys?”

But nobody answers. The ghostly figures turn and stare at her as she tears down the street. More vendors beckon to her but she keeps running, keeps looking through every alley and corner for the other Vipers, her heart pounding in her ears. The sky is dark, dark, darkening, the long shadows stretching into a deep dusky blue. She finds herself skidding to a stop by the water just in time for a ferry to land. Its passengers disembark, all shadows and strange shapes. Goblins, demons, ghosts, _whatever_ they are– they all stop and stare as they pass. Someone (something) shouts and she takes off again, panic pushing her down a winding nonsense path.

She collapses against a shadowed wall behind a dark stone house. Her breath comes short, her thoughts scattered to the wind. Distantly, she registers a creeping numbness in her limbs. In a daze, she looks down.

Her hands are translucent. She falls to her knees on the grass. _I’m fading,_ she thinks. _I’m fading and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’m never going to see my family again._

She wants to cry. She wants to scream.

She does neither of those things.

A gentle hand rests on her shoulder and her head snaps up. It’s that girl from earlier, still in her strange white clothes. Her gaze is piercing but Tali meets it with a stubbornness she doesn’t feel. “What do you want?” It comes out choked instead of demanding, and she’ll die before she admits a few tears slip out.”

The girl sighs and kneels beside her. “Here, eat this.” She presses something against Tali’s lips. Holds it there, even when she keeps her mouth firmly shut. “You need to eat food from this world or else you’ll fade away.

Tali shakes her head again. “Please,” says the girl. Her voice softens. “You need to stay alive. You can’t help your friends if you disappear. Just eat this; I promise you won’t turn into a pig.”

You know those days where you think to yourself and go _Yeah, this might as well be happening_? Today is one of those days. There’s nothing left for her to lose, so she accepts the food. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, chokes her going down, but she slowly regains feeling in her body. With the girl’s help, she manages to stand back up against the wall.

“Feeling better?” the girl asks. She nods. “I’m Dot.”

“I-I’m Tali,” she replies. “But I think you already knew that.”

Dot nods. “I don’t know how, but something about you is familiar.” Her brow furrows. “Where..?” But she shakes her head. “Anyway, we can’t stay here. If you’re found, you’ll be turned into an animal and sent to the slaughterhouse too.”

“The _what?!”_ Her heart rate spikes again.  
  
“Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m kind of fucking worried about it!”

“That’s fair. But you need to come with me. I promise I won’t hurt you, okay?”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Do you have another choice?”

She hates to admit it, but Dot’s right. She has no idea where she is, no idea where her friends are or how to help them, and she almost died within a few hours of running around on her own.

Dot’s expression softens ever-so-slightly. “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot to deal with all at once, but we _really_ need to go. Just follow my lead and you’ll be okay.” It isn’t much comfort, but it’s all she knows how to give.

She helps Tali push off from the wall. “Here, hold my hand so you don’t get lost.” A light blush spreads across Dot’s cheeks. Tali, who’s currently dealing with approximately ten internal crises, doesn’t notice.

Instead, she takes the offered hand (while screaming on the inside) and lets this strange girl lead her through the crowd.

They stop near the bridge. “This is the hard part,” whispers Dot. “I can get us across unnoticed, but you need to hold your breath until we reach the other side. If you breathe even once it’ll fail and everyone will see you.”

“I can do it,” Tali whispers back. She closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths. “I can do it.” She squeezes Dot’s hand a little tighter.

Dot gives her a tiny smile ( _!!!!!!_ says Tali’s ridiculous teenage lizard brain) and squeezes back. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Tali take one last breath and follows her across the bridge.

* * *

Dot’s pace is swift, her footsteps sure. Tali walks beside her.

Her lungs burn. She ignores this.

More strange figures pass them in both directions. There are beings she’s never seen or heard of before, all walking upright and dressed a bit like Dot.

“You’re doing great,” whispers Dot. “Just a little bit longer.” Tali nods back. She can do this.

And then a tiny form jumps out of nowhere just before they reach the end of the bridge.

“Wewcome back Miss Dot! How was youw twip?”

Tali jerks back with a surprised gasp but catches herself too late. The shadowy blob wiggles. “Is that a _human?!_ Can I eat hew–“ In a motion too fast to follow, Dot freezes the blob in place, then flies forward with Tali trailing behind. Within the blink of an eye, Tali finds herself hiding with Dot behind a bush near the base of the tower. “I- shit, I’m sorry. I messed up.”

“No, no, you did great.” Dot clasps her hands. “You did _amazing._ ”

Footsteps pound down the hallway. Shadowy forms rush back and forth, backlit against the paper screens like shadow puppets on a stage. “Miss Dot?! Miss Dot, where are you? Has anyone seen Miss Dot?”

“No, she just disappeared all of a sudden!”

“Miss Dot! Where did you go?”

“I’ll be there in a second!” Dot glances back toward the doors. “I’m sorry, but I have to go now. Listen to these instructions _very carefully,_ okay? It’s the only way you can survive long enough to save your friends.”

Tali nods.

“Go around the back and take those stairs down to the boiler room. When you reach it, you’ll find a woman named Kikyo. You need to ask her for work. She’ll say no, but you need to ask and ask and keep asking until she gives in. You _need_ to work to stay here unharmed. Your contract will be the only thing protecting you from being turned into an animal. It’ll be hard work, and I’m sorry, but it’ll keep you safe. I’ll come back for you as soon as I can.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be okay.” Dot gives her a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes, then slowly releases Tali’s hands. “I’m sorry.” And without another word, she slips into the building.

Tali watches her go. _What the fuck is my life turning into?_

* * *

She finds herself staring down at the steep wooden staircase, pointedly ignoring the thousand-foot drop into the water below.

_If you can jump between buildings on a nightly basis, you can go down a flight of stairs. A flight of rickety wooden stairs. A flight of rickety wooden stairs that don’t look like they’ve had maintenance in at least a decade and might drop you to your certain doom if you’re not careful._

Given the odds, she does the reasonable thing and sprints down as fast as her feet will carry her.

(She crashes face-first into the wall at the bottom but she’s alive so she’ll count that as a win.)

There’s a door to her right that looks rusted shut. She narrows her eyes, pulls out a knife, and promptly starts stabbing the rust off.

* * *

After some indeterminate amount of time, she tries the door. It swings open with no resistance.

“…I just wasted my time, didn’t I.”

She stares down the dark passage at the dim glow within, heaves a sigh, and heads inside.

The iron door slams shut behind her.

* * *

The first thing she notices is the sweltering heat.

The second thing she notices is the weird scuttling noise.

The passage opens out into a wooden room. Strange black… uh… _things_ bounce across the floor with pieces of coal. Tali watches, entranced, as they head to a metal platform and toss the coal into a blazing fire. She takes a step forward into the room, giggling to herself when the black things flow around her foot. One jumps up and down with an indignant chatter until she moves again and lets it continue in its path.

“Do you need something?”

Tali’s head snaps up. There’s a giant woman sitting in the corner of the room. Now that Tali’s noticed her, she has no idea how the hell she ever missed her. The woman’s long sleeves are tied back, her face tired and streaked with coal. Dark horns gleam in the firelight, and a pair of black eyes stare down at this interloper. Her muscles tense and relax as she grinds something in the huge stone mortar.

“My name is Tali and I need a job. Do you have any work for me?”

“Tali, hm? That’s a nice name. You should take good care of it. I’m Kikyo, by the way.” The woman doesn’t stop her work as she speaks. “I’m sorry, but there’s no work for you here. You should leave while you still can.” She waves her hand at the wall. One of the many drawers carved into it slide open next to Tali’s head. A mass of dried plants float out, landing in the mortar. Kikyo turns away from Tali in a clear dismissal.

Tali’s hands clench into fists by her sides. She did _not_ just run through a ghost town, almost black out trying to cross a bridge, and almost fall to certain doom while coming down the stairs just for some giant lady to stop her here. The Vipers _need_ her.

“I need a job. Can I work for you?”

“Listen, I already told you there’s no work for you here. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.” She doesn’t bother sparing Tali a glance.

Back on the floor, one of the black things bumps into Tali’s ankle and falls flat, squashed by the piece of coal. She bends down and picks it up. “Are you okay?” No longer crushed, the black thing unsticks itself from the floor and chatters at her.

Coal in hand, Tali looks from the black thing to the fire. “What should I do with this? Do you want it back?”

“Finish what you start, Miss Tali,” says Kikyo.

She stamps down a flash of irritation. _I don’t need you to tell me that when you’re not even gonna try to help me._ She follows the other black things to the roaring flame and tosses the coal in, then jumps back when the fire flares up.

More of the black things crowd around her feet, pretending to drop their coal pieces in hopes that she’ll throw it in for them. “All of you settle down please,” says Kikyo. “You know better than to rely on others to do your job for you. And Miss Tali, you can’t just take their work from them. They’ll die without it.”

Tali glances down at the little black thing she’d helped earlier. It looks up with huge, innocent eyes. “Sorry,” she whispers. It makes an indescribable noise and bounces away.

There’s a knock on the wall. “I’m here with food for the soot sprites,” calls a muffled voice. A wooden panel slides open on the other side of the room, revealing a person in a dull pink and blue uniform. They duck inside with two baskets. “Ugh, why’s it smell like human in here?”

“Because there’s a human here,” says Kikyo. “Everyone, go take your dinner break.” The little black things (soot sprites?) bounce toward the new person, who tosses handfuls of bright candy down to them.

“And _why_ is there a human here?” They set the other basket on the floor. “That’s for you, Kikyo.”

Tali takes a deep breath. “I’m here to get a job,” she tells them.

“That’s the third time she’s said that in the past ten minutes.” Kikyo waves her hand and floats the basket of food to her workspace. “Thank you for the meal. Haku, could you please take her to Ikin for a contract?”

Haku freezes mid-toss. “I’m sorry, you want me to _what_?”

“She needs a job, doesn’t she? I certainly can’t help her.”

“But she’s– _Ughhhhhh._ ” They scrub a hand down their face. “Yeah, sure, alright. But only because you’re the one asking.” Haku resumes tossing food to the soot sprites. “Kid, want to help me with this?”

She approaches slowly. “Do I just grab a handful and toss it?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Here, you can try.” They hold the basket out in the direction of her voice. Tali grabs some and throws it toward the sprites, who bounce up to grab the candy as it falls. She’d find it cuter if she wasn’t already dealing with the stress of her entire social circle being in mortal peril.

Haku upends the rest of the basket over sprites, then turns to go. “Come on, let’s get you a job,” they sigh. Tali’s hardly set foot on the raised floor before they turn back and say, “And leave your shoes and socks here. You won’t be needing them inside.”

“What if I want to keep them with me?”

“Do you want to get hired or not? Listen, Ikin’s strict about this shit. Just leave the stuff here and you can go grab them later, okay?” They mutter something under their breath in a different language.

Tali decides that she doesn’t really like this Haku person.

“Haku,” Kikyo says in a loaded tone that Tali’s too emotionally drained to unpack.

They heave another sigh. “Fine, fine. Sorry kid, let’s just get out of here.”

She leaves the socks and shoes with the soot sprites.

“And don’t forget to thank Kikyo! She’s really sticking her neck out for you, y’know.”

“Thanks Kikyo.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Tali. Best of luck to you.”

The wooden panel slides shut behind them.

(Tali keeps her knives. No way in hell is she gonna leave those behind.)

* * *

Haku leads her through the tower’s mazelike interior with uncanny grace. “What _is_ this place?” Tali mutters, wide-eyed. Steam fills the air with a sweet white haze. Strange creatures wander about in varying states of even stranger undress, wandering here and there as they please. She has to rub her eyes a few times when she sees a robed frog lead a line of ducks into a stall.

“Haven’t you ever been in a bath house?” asks Haku. “Welcome to Ikin’s Resort For Weary Spirits: The Finest Establishment Across Both Sides Of The Boundary! We accommodate all manner of distinguished guests and provide custom services ranging from entertainment to– _ugh._ ” They pinch the bridge of their nose. “Sorry, I’ve been working here for a _long_ time and they like to make me do the ads. Something about me having a convincing voice or whatever… Don’t tell anybody I said that.”

Tali would laugh if she weren’t scared shitless of the oversized sentient radish currently following both of them. Its skin squeaks every time it moves. Is it because its feet are damp? Is that just what radish skin is like? She has no clue.

“Don’t stare,” says Haku. They’re not looking at her. They haven’t looked at her once throughout this entire night, actually. “It’s rude to the guests.”

“How did you know–“

“Shhhh, I’ll explain later.”

They arrive at an elevator, the radish spirit close behind. Haku’s about to pull her inside when a shadowy blob pops up out of nowhere. “Hewwo Hakuwu! How come it smewws wike huwuman hewe?”

Haku shoves Tali into the elevator behind them, whispering, “Ikin’s office is all the way at the top of the tower. Good luck.” They turn to address the blob. “H-hey, Shadow Walker! I wasn’t expecting you there! Where’ve you been?” They don’t wait for an answer. “Cool, cool. Anyway, I don’t think it’s human you’re smelling; it’s probably one of Kikyo’s roasted newts.”

“Oooh, you’we wight. Those smeww just wike humans! Do you think they taste the same too? Do humans taste as good as woasted nuwuts?”

“I wouldn’t know, would I? I don’t exactly make a habit of eating humans. By the way, I heard the boss is offering extras to whoever gets Employee of the Decade…”

While they distract the blob, the radish spirit crowds into the elevator, its bulk effectively concealing Tali from public view. As the doors close, Tali catches a glimpse of Haku making a thumbs up behind their back.

The ride up is cramped but otherwise uneventful. When they reach the top, the radish spirit steps aside to let her out. It points down the hall with one hilariously tiny finger.

“Is that where Ikin’s office is?” It nods. “Thanks for all of your help. I really appreciate it.” It gives her a wide, wholesome smile, then backs into the elevator. It’s still waving goodbye when the doors shut once more.

Now alone, Tali stares down the hall the spirit pointed to. It’s, in a word, _gaudy._ She’s no interior designer, but the whole place just _screams_ wealth. There’s gold and fancy cloth and expensive glass everywhere. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling and illuminate every path on this seemingly-empty floor. Giant paintings span the walls from floor to ceiling. There’s an entire goddamn _suit of_ armor in the hall! _Fucking rich people_.

If she survives this meeting, she is _so_ coming back to loot the place.

_“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”_

The voice comes out of nowhere and everywhere at once.

_“Come in. I don’t have all day.”_

That horrible, paralyzing terror she’s been ignoring decides to come back full force, keeping her rooted in place. Everything about this voice makes her want to simultaneously run away and stab something.

_“I **said**_ _I don’t have all day. Come here already.”_ Some unknown force yanks her down the hallways through a series of twists and turns. The rooms rush by too quickly for her to process them all, and belatedly she wonders if she hasn’t already sealed her fate.

She comes to an abrupt stop in what appears to be an office. A shadowed form leans forward from behind the desk. “Well? Who are you?”

Tali takes a deep breath, steels her nerves, and says, “I’m here to ask for a job.”

The man is silent for all of three seconds before bursting into raucous laughter. “You? _A human_ is here to ask for a job? Ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!” His stage-laughter is feels like nails on a chalkboard. He pounds on the desk a few times before regaining his composure. “Well, congratulations on making it this far, but I sincerely doubt you did it on your own. Who helped you? I’ll talk to HR about giving them a raise.”

Uh, no. She doesn’t trust this guy as far as she can throw him, and given how tall he his, she doesn’t think that’d be very far to begin with. There’s no way she’s going to rat out her only allies now.

“I want a job.”

The man’s face twitches violently. “Damn my contract,” he mutters. “Whose idea was it to make me give a job to anyone who asks? I should demote them. Sure, it’s good for PR, but this process should really be more _selective._ ” He pins Tali with a hard stare and a grin that gives her some truly terrible vibes. “How about I give you the worst job available? You’ll spend the rest of your miserable little life doing backbreaking labor until you finally give out and leave my business in peace and–” He’s cut off by a ring from the old-fashioned telephone on his desk. “What?”

_“Sir, you have an interview with one of the Interdimensional Bathhouse Commission members in exactly two minutes.”_

“What? Who scheduled this and why wasn’t I informed?”

_“…You scheduled this yourself, sir.”_

“I most certainly did not, but I’ll worry about firing the right person later. When is the interviewer supposed to arrive?”

_“They’re waiting behind the door, sir.”_

Tali bears witness to a man experiencing every possible human emotion (and some that aren’t even human) at the same time. She’d find it more amusing if she wasn’t currently scared shitless.

“I still want a job,” she says loudly, just as a knock sounds at the door. The man’s face contorts.

“There is an _IBC member_ behind this door!” he hisses. “Shut up, won’t you?”

“Give me a job!” There’s a louder, more insistent knock this time.

* * *

Ikin weighs his options. On one hand, the fastest way to quiet this disgusting little rat is by killing her. On the other hand, that is _definitely_ a violation of IBC standards and he’s looking to keep his establishment on top of the ranking list for centuries to come, thank you very much. And there isn’t enough time to do that and hide the evidence _and_ account for the backlash from breaking his contract.

…Fine.

* * *

The man flicks a paper and pen at her. “Fine, fine, just be quiet already. Sign your name on the bottom line and you can get started.”

Tali skims it over and signs her name on the bottom line, then passes it back to the man. “Here, I signed it.”

He looks it over with a critical eye. “Tali, is it? That’s a nice name.” The letters peel away from the page and hang in midair. He closes a fist around it, leaving behind a set of lines that rearrange themselves into a new word. “From now on, your new name is Echo.”

A more insistent flurry of knocks come from behind the door. “Yes, yes, I’ll be there in just a moment!” he calls. “Ahem. Dot! Dot, come here please.”

Dot enters the room from a hallway she could swear had been empty only moments before. “Yes sir?”

“We have a new worker today. Go assign her to a job, won’t you? I’ve an interview to take care of.”

“Of course, sir.” Dot looks at her without a hint of recognition in her face. “My name is Dot; I’m in charge of worker placement and replacement. Who are you?”

“I’m Ta–“ Something rearranges itself in her mind, like the final piece being inserted into a giant puzzle. “I’m Echo.”

Dot nods. “Follow me, Echo.” She turns and walks away without waiting for a response.

What can Echo do but follow?

* * *

“Everyone, we have a new worker today.” Dot’s voice is oddly detached, as if she’s observing the rest of the room from some other plane. As if she’s staring down at them from some high pedestal. It’s dreamy in a cold sort of way. “This is Echo. She’ll be with us for the foreseeable future.”

“Ugh, is that a human?”

“What’s a human doing here?”

“Gross, she smells horrible!”

Echo grits her teeth. The urge to stab grows stronger by the second, but she has a feeling that attacking her new coworkers is a quick route to losing her job. And she needs her job.

(Of all the ways she thought she’d start a Real Legitimate Job, this was nowhere near the top of her nonexistent list of expectations.)

“Hush, please,” says Dot. The room falls silent at her not-request. “She has a contract just like all the rest of us. All she needs is training. If it’s the smell you’re worried about, a few days of eating our food will dispel it completely.”

There are hushed grumbles of dissent throughout the crowd, but they all have the sense not to say anything more.

“Well, I’m not taking her,” says a woman with bright powdered spots on her cheeks. “My department is full already.”

“Same here,” says a frog in a chef’s hat. “The kitchens don’t need some human runt running about and causing a ruckus. We haven’t got the time to train up any newbies.”

Dot casts her icy gaze over the entire crowd and comes to a stop near the wall. “Haku, she’ll work with you and your crew from now on.”

“What?! Are you serious?” Their outraged cry goes ignored as the others snicker amongst themselves.

“Good luck training a _human,_ Haku! We’re all rooting for you!” Disdain drips from every word. “Sure wouldn’t want to be you– not that any of us ever did to begin with.”

“Yeah, yeah, go fuck yourself,” they reply. “C’mon newbie. We haven’t got time to waste.” They take Echo’s hand and stalk out of the room, half-dragging her into the hallway.

“Hey, let go of me!” She has one hand on a knife when Haku slams the door shut and turns to her with a wide grin.

“Sorry, sorry! But anyway, I can’t believe you pulled that off! You’re amazing, Echo!”

“Wait, what?”

“I thought for sure that Ikin was going to kill you or something. Not many spirits survive a face-to-face deal with him and _you’re_ a _human!_ ” They bounce in place for a bit, then motion down the hall with their head. “I’m glad you’re alright though. Let’s go figure out your uniform and sleeping arrangements, okay? You’ve got a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

They lead her further down the open hallway to an alcove with some cabinets and sleeping pallets laid out on the floor. “You’ll need pants, a shirt, a belt, and an apron… Oh, there’s a vacancy over by the side, so you’ll be sleeping there.”

A woman rolls over in her sleeping pallet with an irritated groan. “Haku, what’s with all the noise?”

“We’ve got a new girl in our department,” they reply. “I’m getting her set up with a uniform and some bedding. Mind helping me find something in her size?” Echo hadn’t realized it before, but under the warm lantern lights, Haku’s eyes look strange in a way she can’t quite place. She keeps sneaking glances at them while they pull open a cabinet door. After Dot, they’re the most humanlike being she’s met all day, so what’s throwing her off?

(Ikin doesn’t count because he’s a filthy capitalist.)

“Do you know your measurements?” The question snaps her back to attention. “We have all different sizes but it’ll be easier to find a decent uniform if you already know.”

The woman on the floor mumbles something incoherent, then sits up. “If I help you will you quiet down?”

Haku gives her a sunny laugh. “Maybe.” When they turn toward Echo, she catches a glimpse of bar-shaped pupils and sharp teeth.

…Oh. There it is.

* * *

When the blankets are found and the uniform is sorted out and the sleeping spaces are finally arranged, Tali finds herself sandwiched between Haku and Lin. “Goodnight,” she says, not because she’s tired but because she doesn’t know what else to say.

“G’night,” Haku mumbles, already half-asleep. “Get some rest tonight. You’ll need it for tomorrow.” And then they’re out like the lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

She doesn’t sleep. Oh, she tries. She tries for all of five minutes before resigning herself to eight hours of staring at absolutely nothing.

No, she doesn’t sleep. How can she, surrounded as she is by strangers, even ones as kind as Haku and Lin? How can she, knowing her friends are missing and most likely in danger or dead while she lies here in the comfort of the workers’ quarters? The blanket is thin but soft, the room warm, the air quietly alive with the gentle murmur of sleep. It’s more comfortable than she’d expected. It’s more comfortable than she deserves.

She doesn’t sleep, and so when the first rays of dawn break the horizon and the screen door slides open and a breeze carries in a familiar voice and presence, she doesn’t hesitate to push the covers back and tiptoe out of the room.

_Meet me in the garden,_ Dot had told her on the wind that curled around her ear. _I’ll take you to your friends._

Her gut tells at her that Dot is trustworthy and genuinely wants to help her and that she _really really misses the Vipers_. Her brain tells her that Dot is shady as hell and that she shouldn’t listen to someone who’s clearly an authority figure around here. (Her teenage lizard hindbrain tells her that Dot is pretty and nice and wants to know what dancing with her under a starry sky would— ooookay, ending that thought there.)

Well, Tali’s never been one to think before acting. After closing the door behind her, she heads down to the garden.

**Author's Note:**

> so. uh. i took the initiative to start this. i may or may not finish. i may or may not rework the entire thing next week. rip your characters' personalities i haven't read the main rp chat since november


End file.
